Meta is reportedly set to unveil smart glasses that incorporate a display in September and offer them at a price starting at $800.
The new smart glasses, internally named Hypernova, were initially planned to be priced at $1,000, at least, but will now start at $800 before style variations or prescription lenses are added, Bloomberg reported Sunday (Aug. 17).
The report noted that the current Meta Ray-Ban glasses are priced at $200 to $400 and the Oakley smart glasses cost up to $500.
The new Hypernova smart glasses will feature a screen for apps and alerts on one lens and a wrist accessory that can control the glasses, according to the report.
CNET reported Monday (Aug. 18) that while the Hypernova smart glasses are designed to be used with a mobile phone, they hint at a future when glasses might replace phones.
It is rumored that Hypernova could have a smartphone-quality camera and a voice-activated artificial intelligence query tool, Frederick Stanbrell, head of wearables for EMEA at IDC, told CNET.
“We are likely seeing the first generation of a device that Mark Zuckerberg intends to one day replace phones,” Stanbrell said, per the report.
Meta’s partner on the Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses, EssilorLuxottica, said in July that the sales of Ray-Ban Meta glasses were up more than 200% in the first half of the year.
“We are leading the transformation of glasses as the next computing platform, one where AI, sensory tech and a data-rich healthcare infrastructure will converge to empower humans and unlock our full potential,” EssilorLuxottica Chairman and CEO Francesco Milleri and Deputy CEO Paul du Saillant said in the release.
When Google announced in May that it partnered with eyewear brands Gentle Monster and Warby Parker to create glasses equipped with its extended reality (XR) operating system, Android XR, the company said it expects smart glasses equipped with Android XR and its AI model Gemini to become a convenient and always present AI assistant.
“What if your AI assistant could see the world from your perspective and offer hands-free help? That’s the vision driving our latest advancements in Android XR,” Shahram Izadi, vice president and general manager, Android XR at Google, said at the time.